Air Marshal Erasseri Pathayaprayil Radhakrishnan Nair (3837) Flying (Navigator) joined the Air Force in April, 1950 and has completed 33 years of distinguished service. He has an excellent record of flying, with the highest flying rating of Category 'A' and Qualified Instructors' Category 'A2'. He has command the prestigious Unit Nav and Signal School. He has been Air Crew Examiner and has flown over 4500 hours in various roles like Maritime Support, Transport Support and Instruction.

In 973, he was specially selected to be the Base Commander of Air Force Academy and was directly responsible for not only administration of the station but also the rapid build up of the technical and operational facilities by the target date set for the inauguration of the Academy by the President, a task which he accomplished under the most trying conditions.

Subsequently Air Marshal Nair was appointed Senior Air Staff Officer of Headquarters Maritime Air Operations to shoulder the new and most important responsibility of planning and coordination of Air Operations in consultation with the Navy and executing the task of heli support to the ONGC, which he has been expanding at a very fast rate.

In December, 1975, after graduating from the National Defence College, he was appointed as the Senior Air and Admin Staff Officer, Headquarters Maintenance Command. Due to his personal example, tremendous capacity for sustained hard work and methodical approach, he established harmonious and effective management of men and material, which had direct bearing on serviceability and out put of operational units in the Air Force. After a stint as Senior Directing Staff at National Defence College, he was posted as Air Officer Incharge Administration. During his short stay of just eight months as AOA, he excelled in his spheres of responsibility covering organization, works services, legal duties, security and accounting services of the Air Force.

In his present appointment, as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Training Command, Air Marshal Nair has brought about significant improvements in the quality of training in various training establishments. This has resulted in qualitative improvements in the limited human resources of the Air Force.

Air Marshal Nair in his long and distinguished career in the Air Force, has displayed qualities of dynamic leadership, and organizational, managerial and professional competence of a very high order.

Air Marshal Erasseri Pathayaprayil Radhakrishnan Nair has thus rendered distinguished service of the most exceptional order.

Air Marshal Danis Anthony La Fontaine AVSM VM (3844) Flying (Pilot) was commissioned in the Indian Air Force in April, 1950. During his long service career he has held a variety of Command and staff appointments with distinction at various levels including the policy making level.

His Command appointments include the Command of two frontline fighter Squadrons and two major operational bases when he accomplished high rate of aircraft serviceability, enhanced operational preparedness and all round efficiency.

As Chief Instructor at Air Force Academy on its inauguration, Air Marshal DA La Fontaine was personally responsible for meticulous planning and methodical move of the entire Flying Training School from Jodhpur to the Academy, with speed and purpose. He, as Chief Instructor, reoriented the training pattern in the Air Force and designed the major training directives for the Academy which for the first time in the Air Force fixed the principles, standards and techniques for teaching in the air and on the ground.

After successfully graduating from the National Defence College, he was appointed as Air 1 at Headquarters Western Air Command, and later as Air Officer Commanding of a major base in the western sector. In these appointments he made substantial contribution in achieving optimum utilization of fighter forces under his command. Air Marshal DA La Fontaine was Senior Air Staff Officer Western Air Command since December, 1978, until he took over as Air Officer Incharge Personnel in Jan 83. During this period he displayed qualities of dynamic leadership, coupled with professional and managerial competence,

Air Marshal Danis Anthony La Fontaine AVSM VM has thus rendered distinguished service of the most exceptional order.

Air Marshal Jagjit Singh Sandhanwalia (3810) was commissioned in the Technical Branch of the Indian Air Force in January, 1950. He has held a wide variety of Command and Staff assignments during his long and meritorious service in the Air Force and has distinguished himself not only by professional competence but also by outstanding administrative ability.

The important Staff/Command appointments held by him include that of Chief Technical Officer of two major wings, Assistant Air Attaché USSR, Commanding Officer of Central Servicing Development Organisation and of a Base Repair Depot, Senior Maintenance Staff Officer of two commands and Project Director of Radar and Communication Project Office.

During his command of Central Servicing and Development Organisation the servicing and maintenance schedules were rationalized for various types of aircraft in use. The 2nd line servicing cycle of Avro 748 was successfully extended from a periodicity of 125 hours to 750 hours. This resulted in saving considerable number of man hours and increasing availability of aircraft. Planned servicing schedules were drawn up and made applicable for various types of aircraft.

After being trained for the 1st and 2nd line Maintenance of AN-12 aircraft in USSR, he was specially assigned the task of setting up such facilities in India. Later as Officer Commanding of the BRD, he improved upon the standard of Maintenance practices, changed over to possible indigenous substitutes and ensured optimum utilization of available technical facilities/equipment in the Depot, as a result of which the ferrying of aircraft to USSR and back for Maintenance of aircraft was reduced to the barest minimum, thereby saving substantial amount of foreign exchange.

As Senior Maintenance Staff Officer of two Commands, he achieved substantial qualitative improvements in the Maintenance standards. He was extremely successful in bringing about significant changes in scientific and methodical manner, covering various aspects of modern technology and logistics support.

Presently, Air Marshal Sandhanwalia is serving as Project Director of Radar and Communication Project Organisation and has achieved the rare distinction in planning, installation and commissioning of tropo, microwave and radar facilities, for Air Defence Ground Environment system. He has been very successful in achieving a high state of maintenance of all installations, including these located at far flung, remote and inaccessible mountainous terrain.

Air Marshal Jagjit Singh Sandhanwalia has thus rendered distinguished service of the most exceptional order.

Air Vice Marshal Madan Lal Sethi (4009) Flying (Navigator) was commissioned in January, 1951. Having attended MR Bomber Courses in UK, he was one of the first two crews, which established the nucleus of the newly formed Jet Bomber Conversion Unit in India. He has over 3200 hours of accident free flying to his credit.

He was amongst the first batch of Air Force Personnel to be trained on Surface to Air Guided Weapons in USSR. Later as Officer Commanding of an SAGW operational Squadron, undeterred by hardships, his unit achieved the distinction of being the first unit to be operational.

He attained Directing Staff Grading in the Defence Services Staff College and subsequently served as a Directing Staff in this prestigious institution of the country. He is also a graduate of the National Defence College. In recognition of his experience and instructional capability of exceptionally high standard, he was selected as leader of the Training Team which established an Air Wing of the Staff College in a friendly foreign country.

He has held several Staff appointments in Commands/Air Headquarters. As Joint Director Navigation, he formulated categorization scheme for navigators and Air Traffic Controllers. He was instrumental in the formation of the integrated Area Control Center in J&K.

He was specially selected to Command the largest ground training establishment in the Air Force, where his performance was creditable. Later as Director (Military) in the Cabinet Secretariat he performed the functions related to the secretariat of the Chiefs of Staff Committee very efficiently. On promotion to the rank or Air Vice Marshal in April, 1981, he was appointed as Director of Intelligence, in the Air Force. His approach towards handling of extremely sensitive matters of highly classified nature, like Air Intelligence, Security and vigilance has been highly methodical and systematic. His direction in a field which has vital bearing in the functional efficiency of the service and demands quick and correct decisions has been of immense value in toning up the security and intelligence environment throughout the Air Force.

Air Vice Marshal Sethi, with his dynamic, pragmatic approach, determination and selfless devotion to service, has displayed brilliant and outstanding qualities of leadership, managerial skill and organizing abilities.

Air Vice Marshal Madan Lal Sethi, AVSM has thus rendered distinguished service of the most exceptional order.

Air Vice Marshal Jugal Kishor Kapur, AVSM, VSM, AE (M) was commissioned in the Indian Air Force in January 1951. During 32 yours of his service career, the officer held various staff and other key appointments. including that of Chief Technical & Inspection Officer at Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, Officer Commanding of a major Base Repair Depot, Director of Engineering and later ACAS (Eng) at Air headquarters. He successfully completed the Post Graduate course at College of Aeronautics, Cranfield (UK) in 1963. A keen sportsman, he represented India in basket ball in 1st Asian Games in 1951.

As Deputy Director (Guided Weapons) in the Directorate of Technical Development and Production (Air), he was largely responsible for the development and establishing indigenous manufacture or a large number of items for the Guided weapons System. In recognition of this effort, he was awarded Vishisht Seva Medal in 1974. As Officer Commanding of a major Base Repair Depot, he applied himself with exemplary zeal and shouldered the responsibility with a high degree of confidence. He not only brought about remarkable improvements in the functioning of the BRD, but also more than doubled the production of aeroengines during the very first year of his command. But for his complete dedication in the face of serious constraints, it would have been difficult to complete the assigned task. For this outstanding achievement he was awarded Ati Vishisht Seva Medal in 1980.

First as Director of Engineering 'B' and later as Director of Engineering 'A', he achieved exceptional results in formulation and implementation of policies regarding all aspects of maintenance. In July, 1982 on promotion AVM Kapur took over as ACAS (Eng) and totally involved himself in the prolonged negotiations with Mirage-2000 suppliers. He was instrumental in securing significant concessions from the French suppliers. His sound technical knowledge and professionalism of the highest order assisted the negotiation team in arriving at reasonable prices of a large number of training aids and other equipment.

Air Vice Marshal Kapur established himself as an officer with outstanding professional skill and has worked throughout with a spirit of dedication and exemplary devotion to duty.

Air Vice Marshal Jugal Kishor Kapur, AVSM, VSM has thus rendered distinguished service of the most exceptional order.

Air Vice Marshal Johnny William Greene AVSM VrC VM (4093) Flying (Pilot) was commissioned in the Air Force in 1951, and has held important command and staff appointments, including command of three fighter squadrons and an operational Wing, Director of Fight Safety and Senior Air Staff Officer of an operational command and Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Plans). He held all these post with rare distinction.

An outstanding fighter pilot, AVM Greene qualified as pilot attack instructor and day fighter leader from U.K. He took active part in the Goa operation, Chinese aggression in 1962 and Indo-Pak conflicts of 1965 and 1971. During these operations his abilities in flying and leadership, both in the air and on ground, were an inspiring example of devotion and worthy of others to emulate. Early in his career, he was especially selected for specialist course on Flight Safety in the USA.

After graduating from the National Defence College in 1976, as Senior Air Staff Officer of a major operational command, he enhanced the operational combat capability of various elements, and significantly improved the operational preparedness of the command.

As Director of Air Staff Requirements, and presently as Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Plans), he has enhanced the operational preparedness handsomely in planning, induction and absorption of new and latest types of aircraft, weapons and complex equipment in the Air Force. Due to his remarkable skills, meticulous planning and clear thinking he has been outstandingly successful in finding viable solutions to extremely intricate problems which enhanced the defensive capability of the nation as a whole.

His sustained record of brilliant performance over a long service of 32 years and dedicated contribution in all appointments so far, are in the best traditions of the Indian Air Force.

Air Vice Marshal Johnny William Greene AVSM VrC VM has thus rendered distinguished service of the most exceptional order.